


S and D in NYC (and NJ)

by ThatwasJustaDream



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: M/M, holiday fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-16
Updated: 2016-01-09
Packaged: 2018-04-21 00:47:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4808537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatwasJustaDream/pseuds/ThatwasJustaDream
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve, Danny, and Grace head east for their first holiday trip to New Jersey.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [simplyn2deep](https://archiveofourown.org/users/simplyn2deep/gifts).



> A b'day fic for simplyn2deep! Which turned into a multi-parter, go figure, lol. I saw that they're sending Steve and Danny to the east coast together this coming season, but gawd knows they won't get it McDanno enough for us, so...I thought I'd write them back east for T'giving.

Danny woke up with that feeling of knowing exactly where he was and about what time of the wee hours he was surfacing into….until he totally didn’t. 

As in _now_ he had no frigging _clue_ where he was, and only could tell it was still very, very early; much darker than softly moonlit Hawaiian nights in Steve’s house ever got to be.

He jumped; his body’s automatic reaction to the jolt of ‘what the hell’ going through him. Then he relaxed again as familiar arms drew him tight against a broad, warm chest; large, strong hands and long fingers soothing along his abs and then resting against his ribs, holding him.

“Oh, jeez,” Danny muttered, hearing Steve chuckling north of his head. “I got lost for a second.”

Pretty amazing, not recognizing his childhood home, his own bed.

“I hate it when that happens,” Steve commiserated, and Danny realized Steve had likely woken up in a crapton more strange places than he had.

He felt a press of lips to his temple; Steve leaning up to kiss him and then falling again, adjusting the way they were spooning until it was to his exact liking.

Danny had never been with anyone so particular about correct cuddling procedures. Unless he was too exhausted from work to care, Steve needed the two of them just so; at the best angle for maximizing skin to skin contact, the prime pitch for tilting Danny into his arms with their limbs tangled but not too tangled. 

“You’re like the Martha Stewart of spooning,” Danny muttered.

“What the heck does that even mean, Danno?”

“It means… I can’t tell right now whether I’m your boyfriend or your teddy bear.”

Neither of them liked that label – boyfriend. It sounded funny every time it came out of Danny’s mouth, but it also sounded least absurd out of anything they’d come up with.

“You’re both,” Steve gave a little hip push against him, the arm threaded over Danny squeezing. “You _are_ a teddy bear. All that fur…so nice.”

“Stop it. I’m sorry I said it.” Danny had more thoughts on the matter but he abandoned them as something dawned on him. “Hey, you were already awake.”

“Yeah,” Steve said, voice heavy – like he was sorry Danny had picked up on it.

“Why? Are you feeling okay?”

“It’s nothing, it’s only that it’s…. noisy here.”

“Noisy?” Danny listened, and heard nothing but a soft hiss from the register on the far wall, down by the floor. 

“Not now. But earlier, there was this knocking sound. A tapping kind of thing on a loop.”

“That’s the gas for the forced heat, from the furnace in the cellar. That’s all it was…”

“There was a popping, too. Not as often, but…really loud. Like a shotgun going off.”

“Probably icicles falling off the eaves. They’re pretty heavy with ‘em. Those things, when they get big enough? It can sound like a window shattering.”

“How do you _sleep_ on the East Coast? With all the noises?”

“You get used to it. Didn’t you have a lot of that in school? In Maryland?”

“Not really. It never got too cold, and the heat was electric. We lived in large scale military-school housing; not much sound got through the brick.”

“The pipes aren’t really what has you awake, anyway.” Danny said.

If he’d learned nothing else from being with Steve, it was this: There was no sense dancing around stuff. Cut to the chase, or Steve would deflect ‘til the sun was up, the cows were trotting in and Danny was headed for work in a severely sleep deprived state.

“Are you going to want to move back here?” Steve asked. 

Okay. There it was.

“Move back here _when_?”

“Eventually. You know….” Steve said it like he was reciting something Danny should already know. “Grace only has two more years of high school, and…”

“And our very first night visiting my hometown together, surrounded by my family and friends and my old precinct buddies, you wake up and can’t stop wondering if I’m gonna want to move back.”

“That’d be it, yeah,” Steve said. “That’d be the thing.”

“So…you’re assuming Gracie’s leaving state for school?”

“Well... sure, she is. I don’t see Rachel letting her…”

“S’not about what Rachel wants, babe. It’s what Grace wants. Guess what Grace wants?”

“She wants to go to UH? Really?” Steve asked, and the hope in his voice made Danny ache for him.

“Bingo.”

“Oh…that’s… so good to know. But how can she be sure? Last time she mentioned it, she was still looking at options.”

“Well, she’s decided. She decided a long time ago, but she knew her mom wouldn’t be happy; you were right about that. All the pretending to look at other places was about Rachel, but she finally stood up for herself.”

“I think UH will be great for her.”

“Me too. And it’s not to say she won't go to grad school somewhere else, but… whatever she does, she says she’s coming back to Oahu. I may have my issues with our great state. I might have a list of them as long as my arm, but my kid is gonna be Kama’aina through and through.”

“Wow…” Steve said, and even for a man of few words, Danny was struck that it was all he could come up with. And, too, the way Steve was notably relaxing into the bed like a huge weight had been lifted from him.

“Hey…” Danny dared to break protocol and re-arrange their spoon, flipping over slowly and kissing his way from Steve’s collarbone, up his neck. “How many times do I have to tell you… whatever happens, I’m not leaving you?”

“You want the truth?” Steve asked. “Many more, probably. It’s only been a couple of years, Danny.”

“It’s been more than that since we met…”

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah, babe, I do. I wish you’d stop it, but I get it. Why you can’t. I’ll get you there.”

“I’m really looking forward to it now,” Steve sank even deeper into the bed. “Seeing the city with you and Grace this week. Thanksgiving dinner with your parents.”

“Me, too. Speaking of which… it’s only about three hours until mom’ll be knocking, wanting to get going to the tree farm to pick one out. We’d better sleep while the sleeping is good, okay?”

It wasn’t lost on him that Steve fell asleep right where he was – flat on his back, still in a snuggle, but loosely. Like he didn’t feel the need to hold Danny _just so_ anymore. Like he could afford to let go a little. 

And now it was Danny having a hard time staying asleep; picturing Steve at the tree farm, on the subway, walking the windy streets of midtown wearing a heavy coat with snow in his hair and red cheeks from the wind off the Hudson.

This week? It was a lot of wonderful things to look forward to.


	2. It's not about the tree...

“Ma, wait. Where are you going?” Steve heard Danny call out. “The Scotch Pines are over this way.”

He looked up to see Danny a dozen yards in front of he and Grace, hunched slightly against the wind in his long, black wool coat, waving his mom in his direction.

Danny’s mom, meantime, was practically _marching_ the opposite way in tan boots and a puffy, ivory coat, her purse with the big ‘G’ and the gold chain for a strap slung over her shoulder.

“I don’t want a Scotch Pine,” Steve heard her soft voice, barely, on the breeze – saw her heels catching in the mud as she made her way toward a sign with an arrow on it reading 'Blue Spruce.'

Steve and Grace had been kind of lost in their conversation about Turkey Day, and what they were most looking forward to devouring. Steve looked to her, now, and saw Grace shrug; such a Danny kind of gesture, he couldn’t not break out into a wide smile. 

“She sounds pretty sure about it,” Grace said. “Doesn’t she?”

Steve nodded, but they both waited until Danny gave up and followed his mother – then they started walking again, toward the two of them, dropping right back into thoughts about cranberry sauce, stuffing, and mashed potatoes with blue cheese.

“Cheese in potatoes?” Gracie asked him, her nose wrinkling.

“Oh, yeah. I know, it sounds kind of suspicious,” Steve gave her a ‘go with me, here’ gesture. “But… wow….. you won’t even believe it. It’s ‘food coma’ levels of dairy and carbohydrate goodness.”

“I hope gramma makes her apple pies,” Grace said. “I haven’t had one in so long…I almost can’t remember what they taste like.”

Talking food was delicious in and of itself, but it could only get them so far away from the slice of family drama unfolding by the blue spruces.

“For all my years on this planet, all we have ever….ever had were Scotch Pines,” Danny didn’t sound peeved, exactly, at his mom; more confused and vaguely annoyed. “Now, thirty seven trees later, you want to change things up?”

“That was your dad’s call, all those years. About what kind of tree to buy. Wasn’t it, dear?”

Steve saw Grace look up a him, her mouth popping open, both of their faces full of _‘oh, no, she didn’t…”_

“Ma, you’re picking a different tree - out of spite at dad?”

“No, dear; I’m picking a tree. That’s all. I came home to him with an open heart, and I think I’ve been extremely fair about not holding grudges but… you have to exert yourself occasionally. Especially with a strong personality like your father; you have to stand up for what you want, or…you’re right back where you started. Aren’t you?”

She said it like Danny should get it, having been married to a woman who was so very skilled at demanding what she wanted, no matter his preferences or feelings.

“Okay….” Steve heard Danny say, sounding a bit defeated – and worried. “Blue spruce it is…”

~*~

“See?” Steve stepped in behind Danny. “It all worked out.”

“I guess so…” Danny relaxed into his arms, the two of them standing in the doorway between his parents’ living room and their dining room.

It was as close as he would ever come to admitting that Steve had been right when he’d whispered it in his ear on the drive home; that this would blow over like a snow squall.

 _He’s gonna blow a gasket_ ….is all Danny had kept saying.

And yes, Danny’s dad had given his mom the hairy eyeball when that tree came rolling in the front door. But then he’d merely chuckled and shook his head; had gone up to the attic to get the lights and boxes of decorations, Gracie helping him ferry them down the steep steps.

Now Clara and Eddie were in the far corner of the living room; Clara feeding the string of lights to Eddie and him winding them around the tree while Grace picked through the boxes of ornaments. She had a bunch set aside: Some were her favorite colors, some lit up or sparkled. Some, she had mailed to them from Oahu over the years. Others, Danny and his siblings made when they were kids. 

“Wow,” Steve said it against Danny’s hair, pulling him in an inch tighter. “We have our ohana, you know? And I love it, but… it’s been a very long time since I’ve watched a family decorate a tree together like this.”

“How about you go help them?” Danny stepped away and reached up for a kiss. “I’ll put some music on, and get dinner started. Someone better do that…or we’ll be hungry enough to eat that tree….”

~*~

"Tell me we're not gonna end up like that," Danny mumbled sleepily from the bed.

Steve had just returned to Danny's childhood bedroom after washing and brushing up in the bathroom down the hall; had one hand on the nightstand, kicking off his flip-flops, pulling back the covers on his side.

"Not gonna end up like what, D?"

"Like them. Much as I love them both, please God... just, no."

They'd all had a great evening, in the end - but Steve wasn't surprised that down deep Danny was still irked by this morning. It still visibly rankled with him; his parents openly disagreeing, even if it meant a healthier give and take between them and better overall relations.

"Sorry,” Steve flopped next to him on the bed, burrowing in and then stretching flat on his back, the arm farthest from Danny going over his head to adjust his pillow. " I can't do that for you. 'Cause to tell you the truth... we already kind of are. Like them."

"No. Uh-uh," Danny half sat up, resisting; giving in when Steve's other arm flew out and pressed him back toward the mattress. "We are not. No way."

"We argue so regularly,” Steve said. “....people set their watches by us."

"That's fine. Arguing... is fine. It's the built-up pissiness and, I don't know.... passive-aggressive decision making that I'm talking about."

"I get it. I really do…" Steve let his eyes fall closed, then remembered he hadn't hit the light and reached to turn it off.

"I will never, ever buy a tree,” Danny muttered. “…. _any_ tree, with the express purpose of pissing you off."

Steve lay in the dark and tried to hold back the chuckle rising through him; the one threatening to turn into a full out huffing sound of derision - but he failed.

"What?" He heard Danny say. 

"Not picking a fight - I'm swear I’m not. But you ...push my buttons like you designed them, Danny. Like you know right where every one of them sits and exactly how hard to press."

There was a rare moment of silence.

"You might be right," Danny said, eventually. "Maybe I do. Sometimes. A little."

"Wow."

"What?"

"That's... unprecedented, out of you. And I have no witnesses."

"You double-checked that we packed the tickets, right? For tomorrow?”

It was a hard right turn in the conversation Steve could only sigh deeply at.

“Yes – for the twelfth time since we got on the plane, I have them,” he said. “They’re in the small zip compartment at the top of my carry-on. Would you sleep better if I get up and dig them out and show them to you again?”

“No, of course not,” Danny said. “Yes, yes, I would, actually. I know you said you have them but we didn’t actually check and… it’s printed tickets only, no e-tick…”

Steve was already on his feet and halfway over to their suitcases along the far wall before he got the sentence out. Was back in bed again as Danny’s voice tailed off.

“Tickets,” Steve said. “Correction – seven tickets, exactly, for your sisters, you, Grace, your parents and me to see the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Better?”

“Better, babe. Thanks."

Steve had burrowed back in, was tossing around to get the sheets and comforter arranged just right, but he could hear Danny ticking through them, counting them out with a thumbnail and setting them on the nightstand. “It’s… a big thing, you know. And if I didn’t have these tickets….”

“What are you gonna worry about, Danny?” Steve asked.

“What do you mean, what am I going to worry about?”

“Now that you know we have the tickets, what are you going to worry about?”

“Are you kidding? Are you…pressing my buttons?”

“Maybe,” Steve said. “A little.”

“Goodnight, Steven.”

“’Night, Danno. Don’t let the bedbugs bite. Not that I think your bed has bed bugs, I’m sure it doesn’t. The odds are...so low. You shouldn't worry about it at all."

“Stop it.”

“Okay. Night.”

“Night.”


	3. The Christmas Show

“Do you think it could be snowing by the time we get there?” Grace asked.

“I don’t know,” Danny took one hand off the subway pole and set fingertips to his forehead. “Let me focus all my telepathic abilities and send them out to look three minutes into the future, two stories up above ground….”

“Danno...” Grace nudged him with one foot, neither of her hands leaving the pole, holding on for dear life as the train slammed to a stop at 42nd Street. “You said it would probably snow while we are here.”

So far, the only snow they had seen was already on the ground. Just his luck.

“What is that look about?” Danny asked Steve, who was glancing between them, grinning softly.

“Nothing,” Steve said. “I was thinking I’m glad Grace took the heat for that, you know? ‘Cause I’ve been kind of hoping to see it snow, too, but I didn’t dare say it and raise your _ire_ to Scrooge-like levels….”

“Raise my…. I’ll raise my _ire_ at you, buddy,” Danny brandished a fist, voice tailing off at how his sisters were laughing at him.

“Steve, we’re gonna need to hear all about it later,” Danny’s sister Jill said as the train took off again, headed for the next stop – their stop. 

“What’s that?” Steve asked.

“The story of how you ended up with our cranky bastard of a brother,” his sister Annie finished their joint thought.

“You did _not_ just suck up to him,” Danny said. “I know you didn’t go and take his side simply because he’s …visually pleasing.”

He felt himself turning five shade of red as both of his sisters practically lost it, giggling so much they couldn’t breathe. At him. Them laughing, and Grace giggling and all because he’d blurted a stupid, errant comment about Steve being ….yeah. Geezus, what was he thinking?

“I’m hurt, Daniel,” Steve said. “That you only love me for shallow reasons.”

“I love you despite yourself, Steven,” Danny countered best he could, with the little dignity he had to work with at the moment. “Those who know us, know that’s a fact.”

“I can’t say I’m so sure about that, Danny,” Jill said. “Steve drove us to the mall to pick up a few things for tomorrow … and his driving? It was perfect. We’re kind of thinking you overstate his faults.”

“Of course his driving was perfect: It’s the holidays, and we’ve got gridlock conditions all over the tri-state. You get him out on the thruway early Friday morning, then tell me what you think. That is, if you can talk. If you haven’t completely lost your….”

Happily the train was stopping again, and they were too busy finding the subway exit for Danny to catch further grief from Steve’s new fan club.

~*~

It wasn’t snowing when they came up the stairs at 50th and Broadway. Not a flake in sight. The streets were jam-packed with tourists, though – throngs busy with holiday shopping, headed for restaurants or shows of their own.

“This way,” Danny pointed east. “We’ll walk a block up, two long blocks over and then… we are there.”

His sisters knew he was very familiar with midtown from his partying younger days: The gang happily followed his lead, the little pack reforming into a semi-circle, chatting quietly until, out of nowhere, Grace took off running.

The adults were dumbfounded at her sprinting away from them. Danny nearly ran after her, but stopped when he heard her shrieking happily, getting a high-pitched dinosaur screech back from two little girls who were bolting her way.

“Oh, wow,” Danny tugged at Steve’s arm. “Those are friends of hers from second grade. Holy…. crap. They haven’t seen each other since they were …seven or eight, maybe…”

All the grownups hung back while the kids hugged and screeched some more. Then there were handshakes and introductions all around, and happy laughter when they realized they were all going to the same place.

Radio City wasn’t far, and the whole rest of the conversation would have been filled with catching up and finding out where everyone was sitting - that is, it would have been if Steve had an ‘off duty’ mode.

“Danny, look…woah, hey…” Suddenly Steve was nudging him and pointing up the street.

“Hey, what?”

“That guy, he’s picking pockets. He just…”

“No way. In this crowd? It’d be too obvious, someone would see….him.” 

“And now…again. See that?”

Crap. He was. Danny started looking for a cop. Steve didn’t bother; took off running as fast as Grace had at her friends.

“Stop! Steven, you’re a civilian here in New York, you’re not a cop!” He took off after him, not sure if he was in this to help him or stop him. “You’re not licensed to…”

“Citizens arrest,” Danny heard Steve shout back. “If it’s a felony…it’s perfectly legal.”

“You better hope he picked a few grand worth of cash, then,” Danny snapped back, just in time to come to a skidding halt as Steve got a hand on the thieves’ shoulder.

The guy didn’t give up easy: There was a tumble, and Steve rolled perfectly – was back on his feet in a flash, crouched over the dude, whose arm was now twisted just so behind him. 

“You are _not_ a _cop_ , here!” Danny shouted it again, venting a surge of extreme frustration that welled at the sight, and the realization they may now miss the top of their big show sorting all this out.

Steve gave him a ‘shut up’ glare as the perp struggled underneath him, encouraged by Danny’s words. 

Happily, two members of the actual NYPD were on the way over to sort it out. Danny hung back and left it to Steve - it was his mess. But he did stick close enough to make sure Steve didn’t end up in cuffs, too.

~*~

“Oh, no. Don’t look at him like that,” Danny snapped at the small sea of agog faces waiting for them back on the corner. “He is not a hero. He is not Superman, he’s… a maniac.”

“It was a felony, Danny,” Steve said, but he had the decency to look a little regretful, like it was dawning on him that following the guy and finding a cop might have been the better plan. “He did steal a bunch of wallets, and…”

“You totally took out a bad guy,” Annie said. “Just like that; bam, zoom… off to jail.”

“Do. Not. Encourage him!” Danny said, for all the good it did. “He could have been stabbed…again. Like he needs another stab wound to tend to. Or shot….”

“You’ve been stabbed and shot?” Jill asked. “And still, you go for it -no hesitation, you just …take the bad guy out at the knees…”

“Oh, my God. This is ridiculous,” Danny gave up and started walking toward the venue, Grace and the kids following with their moms and aunts behind them. “The slack people cut you and your rash behavior?”

“Sorry, Danny,” Steve said it low, by his ear, catching up with him. “It was instinct.”

“That’s the sad part,” Danny said, but he let something softer creep into his voice. “You weren’t even trying to get goo-goo eyes out of all the ladies. Were you?”

“Of course not. I was trying to stop a …”

“Okay, all right…”

“…thief. In action. You know?”

“Stop. Let’s keep walking, we’re …”

“All those people don’t deserve to lose their wallets at the holidays…”

“…gonna be late.”

“Sorry, Danny.”

“Yeah, babe, you are. But I love you anyway.”

~*~

The Christmas Show was the usual, wonderful, over-the-top display with Rockettes as reindeer, dozens of dancing Santas, and the big finale with the living Nativity scene full of actual animals. The camels were a particular hit, and “Joy to the World” at the end sent everyone back onto the street with a full and happy heart.

“Ohhhhh!” Grace was the first to hit the door – and then Danny saw what she was oooh-ing and aaahing about.

“Well... look at that,” he said.

It was snowing, finally; huge, wet flakes falling from the dark sky, standing out against the signs and the street lights, the not-at-all-unusual wind whipping down the side streets due to the canyon effect and making Manhattan look like an actual snow globe.

“Can we walk through Times Square?” Grace asked.

“Sure, sweetie,” Danny wasn’t crazy about how wet his socks would likely be by the time this was over, but…how could he say no? “That’s the kind of thing we’re here for. Right?”

They said goodbye to her friends, and then walked the square: Cheeks getting red and fingers numb despite mittens and gloves that got fished out of pockets and slid on as they walked and talked and laughed.

“Do you have a favorite restaurant nearby?” Steve asked Danny as Grace and the sisters admired the window displays. 

“Sure. There’s a great Italian place up about five blocks, over on Eighth Avenue….”

“How about we walk there, and I’ll buy us all dinner?”

“What: Did you take some of the cash that guy stole?”

“This is not the time to imply that I’m cheap,” Steve said. “I’m trying to make it up. For earlier.”

“Thanks, babe. No need to make anything up, but that sounds great. I’m starving.”

~*~

It was warm and pleasantly dark in the restaurant; so warm that the cold windows were fogged with frost on one side, slick from the moisture of melting boots and scarves on the other. The restaurant was packed, and there was a loud hum of happy voices – his sisters' included as they asked Gracie about Hawaii, and about her classes and such. 

Danny and Steve were in the corner next to the window, which gave them a nice view of their happy family thawing out, and prime people watching outside, too. Danny got lost in it all, for a while – and only really roused himself when the appetizers came.

He watched Steve dig into the plate of antipasti like he hadn’t eaten for a week and he had to smile.

“What?” Steve asked, still chewing. “Am I eating in a manner that’s not civilized enough for you?”

“No, babe. You’re really enjoying it…” Danny started in on his bruschetta. “And I’m enjoying it: Seeing you here, in my favorite places. Seeing you happy and …I don’t know. So…unburdened. Don’t get to see that often, do I? It’s what I’ve been looking forward to most. When I yap at you because of things like this afternoon? I hope you know…it’s ‘cause I worry. ‘Cause you scare the shit out of me sometimes. And because I love you.”

“Sorry, D.”

“Enough apologies….okay?” 

Danny reached up for a quick, light kiss flavored with tomato, garlic and pepperoni seasoning and didn’t object when Steve deepened it – kissed him back, longer than Danny had planned. 

His sisters pretended not to notice, but he caught a glance between them, a ‘happy for him’ look and ….damn if it wasn’t a pretty perfect day after all.

~*~

There was more snow falling as they headed back for the subway – and enough on the ground to make tiny snowballs.

Happily, he managed to convince Steve and Grace not to start pelting each other or anyone else with them, and they got home fairly dry.

“Can’t wait to start cooking in the morning,” Steve said as they slid into Danny’s bed. “I told your mom I’d help with the stuffing and potatoes.”

“Glad you’re up for that, ‘cause I think dad and I have an appointment to watch football all day.”

“It’s going to be a great meal,” Steve said, shifting around and shifting Danny a bit, too, to find their spoon. “I love Thanksgiving.”

“We’re going to go home five pounds heavier.”

“We’ll swim it off. Run it off.”

“You will. I’ll diet all the way to Christmas…and gain it all back again anyway.”

“I can think of another way to burn it off…” 

Danny felt the hand flat against his chest start wandering south, fingers arching and tracing along his skin.

“Babe, I would love to but.... this is my childhood bed. My parents are twenty yards away, and you know I’m loud. There is no _not_ being loud when you…”

“I’m not getting any ‘til we get home. Am I?”

“I think not.”

“K. Night, D.”

“Night. Animal.”


	4. Thankgiving Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it's 1/1 and I'm still writing a Thanksgiving story. *headdesk* Thanks for your patience - the last chapter will be T'giving night and their trip home to Hawaii.

"Grace still isn't sold on my recipe," Steve checked the potatoes with a silver knife as they boiled, and found they weren’t quite ready for draining and mashing yet. "She told me cheese in your mashed potatoes sounds like maple syrup on meatloaf."

"You don't have to convince me," Danny's mom was sitting at the kitchen table, neatly trimming the ends off green beans with a paring knife, having already prepped the acorn squash for the oven. "It's been years since I've had blue cheese mashed potatoes. A friend of mine in high school - her mom made them from time to time. I can't wait to try yours."

"I hope they'll live up to the memory," Steve said, sitting at the table to mix the blue cheese and milk while they finished up.

"It's funny, isn't it?" Clara said. "How things change - they come and go from your life."

"Yeah, it is," Steve said. "Funny. And some.... you never see coming."

He thought about trying to describe it to her: How incredibly alone he'd been until a couple of years ago; so alone it was all he could picture for himself. And now he was sitting in a kitchen in New Jersey making a dish he hadn't had since he was a teenager. He had Danny and Grace, and colleagues who were truly ohana to him and... 

He kept the rest of it to himself: Didn't have it in him to open up to her quite that much, as nice as person as Clara was.

This was still so new.

"I'm glad you could all come for Thanksgiving," she said, and he could sense it in her tone; that she was maybe hoping to draw him out on the topic a little more.

"Me too. It's been great to get East, and have some time with Danny and Grace and no threat of work interrupting it. And I think it's been a relief for Danny. He was ...a little worried about you and your husband and ....I don't know; you accepting the reality of us.”

"Well, hopefully we've popped that one bubble of worry for him," Clara said, a soft, conspiratorial smile on her lips. "One down, only fifty thousand to go Right?”

Steve nodded and returned the smile, looking toward the other room where Danny and his father were alternately cheering and shouting epithets at the football game. Eddie? Steve understood the type of man he was, strong and silent. Danny's dad would probably never say a direct word to either of them about their relationship - not a positive one or a negative; almost like he felt it wasn't his business to and certainly couldn't imagine them wanting him to.

Clara, it was turning out, wasn't so hesitant to go there.

"I do hope...." she kept at the beans, cutting the tips at neat, 45 degree angles. "....that you are keeping in mind that your new life comes with big, new responsibilities. As in the hearts and futures of two people I love so much."

Well there it was, Steve thought: Danny's mom asking his intentions for her son.

"Don't worry; I can tell you one hundred percent I’ll never do anything to hurt Danny. I'd never walk on him...let him down like..."

"Oh, I _don’t_ worry about that," she shrugged and gave a little waggle toward the other room with the paring knife. "I know you won't do what she did to him. Don’t get me wrong: I hoped for their sakes' that their relationship would last but....Danny will tell you, I had my concerns and doubts. I don't worry about you two at all in that way; I haven't since I saw you together in Hawaii."

"Then what ... could I ask...."

"My son has very strong opinions about a lot of things, I know. But he's also very observant and he's smart. It's why he's such a good detective. And he tells me things, sometimes, about what still keeps him up at night. Like your driving. And you jumping off of ledges and bridges and...."

"Clara, I have gotten much better. Really, I've toned down a lot of that since..."

"Really? 'Cause I heard about a chase you were in the other month: Something about cutting through highway traffic at eighty miles an hour, spinning around to stop the bad guys and...."

"Well, yes, that was...one very specific exception. But….I’m trained for these things, see, and…"

" _And_ there was something about breaking into a building: Rappelling down an elevator shaft to help your mother steal information of some sort?"

"Um... Danny told you about that?"

"Only what little you told him. And how much he frets about her maybe dragging you into more danger. If she were to show up again."

For the second time in one conversation, Steve found he had to keep his thoughts to himself: Mostly because he realized that when Doris came back she had said a lot - mostly that she loved him, needed his help, was happy to see him, never had wanted to leave he and Mary. 

But not once had she urged him to put himself first in any situation. Or urged him to look before he leaped? Probably, he thought, because she was too busy leaping, herself.

"I guess... I've made progress," Steve thought his response through. "I do live more for myself, my future. But it’s hard to turn that big a ship around, you know? The stuff you’ve carried with you for years?”

“I understand, I do…” Clara got up to go toss the green bean tips, sweeping them into one hand. “But you might want to keep jettisoning some of that old cargo in favor of the new. And remember… you’re as important as these cases you keep throwing yourself at.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said. “I’ll keep it in mind.”

“Such a polite, young future son-in-law I have,” She stopped on her way by to plant a quick peck on Steve’s forehead. “Be more careful for your own sake, too; we’ve all kind of come to love you.”

Clara went to tease her husband and son for yelling at a TV screen over a silly game. 

Steve sat in silence, flushing with embarrassed pleasure at how a simple, sweet maternal gesture had made him feel like he was twelve again. And surrounded by family.


	5. Never Wanting...til the End of Time

_“He provides bread for all creatures, for His kindness is never-ending….”_

Danny listened to his father saying grace. 

He was, admittedly, cheating: one of his closed eyes cracked a tiny bit to peek at them all. Steve was to his left, holding his hand tight. Grace sat to his right with her little palm in his. His mom was across and to his right, seated by his dad and next to her daughters, their husbands. The nieces and nephews followed the grownups’ lead, their eyes firmly down at the kiddie table.

_“And because of His magnificent greatness… we have never wanted for food, nor will we ever want for food, to the end of time.”_

There were ‘amens’ all around, and then the passing of many, many bowls and dishes. Danny took charge, carrying the stuffing and green beans to each of them, enlisting one of his nieces to chip in so people could serve themselves quickly before it stopped being hot and perfectly yummy.

“Oh….my … _gawd,_ ” he heard Grace say, and there was a soft round of giggles all around at that popping out of her mouth at her age. “Soooo good….”

“What did I tell you?” Steve reached to give her a fist bump, watching her shovel another fork of the potatoes a.s.a.p. “Not so bad, huh?”

“I’ve never been this happy to be wrong about something,” Grace said. 

Danny was reminded, later, why they started dinner so early on Turkey Day: Four p.m. seemed kind of ‘early bird special’ to him, except that afterward there was digesting, followed by more football, then some family board games including a never-ending round of Trivial Pursuit. Then it was pie and cake and coffee and tea and…

“Wow,” Steve said from Danny’s left, Steve’s long arm over Danny’s shoulder on the sofa. “I …am not sure I can move.”

“I know,” Danny managed to get his feet up on the coffee table, nestled into Steve with his right arm over Grace. “No law says we can’t sleep here.”

The sisters and her kids had gone home a few minutes ago. Danny’s mom was puttering in the kitchen, arranging things so they’d have time for breakfast in the morning before her son headed for the airport. Danny’s dad was out in his recliner, aimed at the TV set but hearing none of it, just shy of snoring.

“I think it went really well,” Grace said, surfing on the laptop in her hands. “Don’t you?”

“What, babe?” Danny asked. “What went well?”

“Our first trip home….” she said. “As a family.”

Danny told her how right she was, how much he’d enjoyed this week. Then he dared a glance up at Steve and saw it: Steve still swallowing hard at the impact of Grace’s words – his head back on the sofa, eyes damp.

“Hey,” Danny said it softly. Steve looked at him, nodding. Blinking. “Happy holidays….my huge goofball.”

He collected a light kiss and settled in deeper, savoring these last few peaceful hours together.

~*~

“We could probably get off the plane,” Danny said, voice full of nerves. “If we asked, they could probably….”

“No way,” Steve wrapped a hand around Danny’s; the one he had clenched around the armrest between them. “They shut the doors, and the luggage bays. We’re gonna pull out to taxi soon...”

“Still, if we asked them…maybe…”

“You know that she’ll be fine,” Steve assured him for the fifth time that morning. “She and her friends are going Black Friday shopping in the city today, right? She’ll have a few days with them, and some time with her grandparents…and we’ll pick her up at the airport in a few…”

“Five days, it’s just…a lot. For her to be that many thousands of….”

“Deep breath,” Steve said, and Danny felt him leaning in, felt lips tracing over his temple. “It’s only five days. And she’ll have a blast.”

“Yeah,” Danny said and Steve smiled at how much his voice suggested he really didn’t concur.

“I could do it, Danno,” Steve said, after the long pause that followed. “If you never needed to….you know? Move somewhere for her. If Grace changes her mind about college or settles somewhere else, I…could do that.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes. Wherever you go… I’m in.”

“Well….you know….that….” Danny looked like he was the one at a loss for words – for once. “….that is huge.”

“I’m not worried,” Steve said. “About what we are or where things might go. I’m just..not worried about it anymore.”

He didn’t get a direct reply back, but Steve felt Danny go limp as a noodle- all stress gone, the surprise of it resetting his whole mood.

“I wish we didn’t have a ten hour flight ahead,” Danny said. “If you know what I mean.”

“I do know,” Steve said.

“Just you wait…” Danny leaned up to say it against his ear, lips pressing the spot below the lobe, teeth nipping. “….’til I get you home.”

~fin~

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for your patience with this slow-to-arrive bit of fluff. Hope you enjoyed. Happy New Year. :)


End file.
